Mouse Scroll wheel behaviour in macOS

[tony359]

Hi there,

I'm using macOS Sequoia on a Mac Mini M4. I was on Windows until last year when I decided to switch to the mac mini as my main machine.

One thing I cannot get used to is the mouse wheel. In Windows it's quite responsive, a "click" of the wheel (rotationally speaking) corresponds to movement on screen. If I scroll slowly, the page scrolls slowly. If I scroll really fast, the page scrolls really fast.

I couldn't get used to macOS' native behaviour so I installed "LinearMouse" which allows me to configure things more to my liking. I tend to disable acceleration and have a fixed amount of pixels/lines for each mouse "wheel click".

This is still not working the way I'd expect. It's like some wheel movement is not being registered. It's like there is an acceleration - but it's disabled in LinearMouse.

As an example, if I scroll slowly, the page moves slowly, though sometimes it feels as some "clicks" are lost.
If I scroll at medium speed, the page follows that, depending on the amount of lines/pixels I have chosen

If I scroll super-fast... the page doesn't move at all or maybe just a little bit. Confirming that there is something applying some "logic" to the wheel movement.

The same mouse (Steel Series Rival 3, CORDED), works as expected in Windows. If I spin the wheel really fast, the page moves really fast.

In macOS I always feel the page skips some of the movement and I keep scrolling waiting for the page to do what I'm telling it to do!

And this is without mentioning that different apps seem to behave differently with a different amount of pixels/lines being scrolled, despite the setting being the same.

What am I missing here? Is this an expected behaviour or is there something I can tweak?

Thanks!

 

[chabig]

It sounds like Linearmouse isn't very configurable. Here are some other utilities you might try:

Smart Scroll

Smart Scroll lets you control and customize scrolling on macOS. Adjust speed, acceleration, smoothness, and enable advanced features like Grab Scroll and Vector - Smart Scroll

github.com

AirScroll — Smooth Scrolling for macOS

AirScroll brings smooth, natural scrolling to macOS | Fix macos scroll

airscroll.net

Mos | Smooth scrolling for mouse wheels on macOS

Mos is a free macOS utility that makes mouse wheel scrolling smooth, with per-app settings, independent axis tuning, and button/shortcut bindings.

mos.caldis.me

 

[tony359]

Thanks

SmartScroll is a weird GitHub for me? It doesn't have a repository and when I click on "Setup" it takes me to "furiesniffer.com" saying it's all virus-free and offering a download. It smells like malware from far away.

Do you have experience with this GitHub?

 

[chabig]

Do you have experience with this GitHub?

None. I just searched to try to find some options for you.

 

[tony359]

Well, besides the dodgy one, MOS behaves the same and doesn't look to be much more configurable than LinearMouse.

 

[Fishrrman]

Try USB Overdrive
or
SteerMouse

 

[tony359]

I will but...

is there anybody with any direct experience of what I am reporting? Is this expected? Is this a HW or SW behaviour?

 

[chabig]

Cursor and scroll behavior is all software. You described behavior with Linearmouse, so I assumed that’s the issue. You didn’t mention what kind of mouse you’re using. Is there a chance you installed its own software and it’s the interaction between that and Linearmouse that is the root of your problem? Any USB mouse should function just fine (cursor, scrolling, left and right buttons) without special drivers. Extra software is mostly for fine tuning the behavior in ways Apple doesn’t offer, or for supporting extra buttons or controls. Both USB Overdrive and Steermouse are well regarded.

As to your question above, I think that most people are ok with standard behavior. It’s a little different than Windows, yes. People tend to like what they’re used to. I like Mac mice and can’t stand Windows behavior. But mostly I use trackpads.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP asks:
"is there anybody with any direct experience of what I am reporting? Is this expected? Is this a HW or SW behaviour?"

Mouse "feel" on the Mac is different than on a PC running Windows.
It just ... is.

 

[tony359]

You didn’t mention what kind of mouse you’re using.

I did 🙂

Is there a chance you installed its own software and it’s the interaction between that and Linearmouse that is the root of your problem?

I thought about that, I don’t think so but I need to check.
I do have Karabinier running though which I believe captures the mouse as well.
However I tried disabling it as well and no change.

Both USB Overdrive and Steermouse are well regarded.

So far I couldn’t get USB Overdrive to work, despite having given permissions, it doesn’t detect any mouse. I’ll try again.

As to your question above, I think that most people are ok with standard behavior. It’s a little different than Windows, yes. People tend to like what they’re used to.

I think I could get used to a different behaviour, and those apps are there to tweak it - what I’m struggling to get used to is me scrolling the wheel and the UI barely moves.
AND, the scrolling amount changing depending on the app you’re using.

That doesn’t work well in my head.

 

[chabig]

I did 🙂

Yes you did! I see it now.

...what I’m struggling to get used to is me scrolling the wheel and the UI barely moves.
AND, the scrolling amount changing depending on the app you’re using.

Those two problems certainly sound real and also are not normal for a Mac.

 

[Fishrrman]

"So far I couldn’t get USB Overdrive to work, despite having given permissions, it doesn’t detect any mouse"

go to
system settings/privacy & Security/input monitoring

also go to
system settings/extensions/driver extensions

...And make sure the USB Overdrive extension (or helper) is enabled.

 

[tony359]

Yes I made it work but no difference.

Question: are you ALSO experiencing the symptoms I mentioned or not? Happy or not happy, do you see what I report?

 

[fabianrain]

I have the same feelings about mouse scrolling on Mac and just like the Windows mouse scrolling experience better. I am using SmoothScroll to tweak the Mac mouse scrolling behaviour to my liking (more like Windows). It is a paid application but absolutely worth it.
On the other hand everything about the trackpad on Mac (includes scrolling) is just perfect on Mac.
Just because Apple does something in some way doesn't mean that it is the best way for everyone.

 

[tony359]

I've recently acquired a macbook Air M1 and yes I have zero issues with the trackpad. It's night and day compared with my Lenovo's.

 

[Brian33]

Question: are you ALSO experiencing the symptoms I mentioned or not? Happy or not happy, do you see what I report?

I’ve been using MacOS since 2008 and haven’t seen the behavior you report. I use Logitech mice, with the mouse wheel in free wheel mode. When I spin it, the scrolling is very fast. It never behaves like you described. I have never noticed a difference in scroll rate in different apps, either.

I do not use any special software for mouse control. I tried Logitech’s utility a long time ago and found it buggy and it caused weird problems.

I would say what you are describing is not normal.

 

[tony359]

I'm familiar with the logitech "free-wheeling" mode where you can scroll down to the beginning of the internet if you're not careful! 😀

Thanks @Brian33 for the first relevant contribution to my report.

I turned on Windows and to my surprise I had the same behaviour. So I plugged a random mouse in both Windows and Mac and the scrolling issue was gone. Yes, macOS behaves differently but I didn't have that "the page stops scrolling when I scroll really fast".

So I had a look online and I found this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/steelseries/comments/13d2hga/fix_for_rival_3_wireless_scrolling_issue

I opened my mouse, they used a MECHANICAL encoder for the wheel, which I feel it's criminal. Why not an optical encoder???

Anyhow, I flushed it with dry contact cleaner and then lubricated with DeOxit D5.

Guess what? It works fine now.

I have to apologise for assuming it was a macOS issue. I still don't like some of macOS scrolling behaviour but those can be tweaked and, most importantly, tolerated.

I believe the misunderstanding has arisen because the wheel slowly got worse over time and I never felt it was "suddenly broken", I always assumed it was those little macOS behaviours I disliked. Without realising, my mouse was in fact broken! 😀

Thanks for all the help